Savon Voima Group’s financial statement release 2019

Savon Voima Group’s net sales totalled EUR 187.7 million last year (EUR 184.1 million in 2017), growing by about two per cent on the previous year. The operating profit of the Savon Voima Group increased by 19 per cent to EUR 44.1 million (EUR 37.1 million). The operating margin stood at EUR 79.4 million (EUR 71.2 million). The Group’s investments totalled EUR 64 million (EUR 64.4 million), of which the investments in the weather resilience of the electricity network reached a record high: EUR 56.6 million.

The improved performance was attributable to the rise in market prices of electricity, as well as the improved results of the electricity network operations, production operations and district heating business. The improved result of the district heating business is due to the fact that the use of oil in district heat production has fallen as a result of almost uninterrupted production and our long-term investments in the utilisation of local energy sources and the improved energy efficiency of our production. The energy fee for district heat customers was reduced at the end of 2017 by 1.0 - 4.5 per cent, depending on the district heating network, and no changes were made in the prices last year. The good result of our electricity network operations enables the continuation of our sizeable weatherproof investment programme.

The net sales of electricity generation amounted to EUR 18 million, up by 35 per cent on the previous year. The increase in the net sales and the clearly better profitability of electricity generation than in previous years were attributable to a rise in the market price of electricity. The realised operating income of electricity generation was EUR -0.4 million (EUR -2.9 million) last year.

The Group’s investments totalled EUR 64.0 million (EUR 64.4 million), of which the share of investments in the weather resilience of the electricity network reached a record high: EUR 56.6 million (EUR 54.0 million), corresponding to about 61 per cent of the net sales of electricity network operations. In the years 2013 --2018, the Group invested more than EUR 266 million in the weatherproof electricity network in compliance with the Electricity Market Act, which came into force in 2013. The investment programme on the construction of a resilient electricity network will continue this year and next year in the form of investments of about EUR 100 million. The biggest individual electricity network construction project consisting of investments of about EUR 15 million progressed to the stage where three new substations were connected to the network in the town of Iisalmi.

The electricity distribution price was increased by an average of 10 per cent on 1 April 2018. This was necessary in order to enable the implementation of a weatherproof investment programme. A total of 53,500 (41,200) customers were connected to the resilient electricity network at the end of 2018.

The Group’s electricity sales increased by about 6.1 per cent, i.e. by 1.47 gigawatt hours, on the previous year. Owing to the price hedgings performed, we were able to reduce the prices of electric energy for our major customers compared with the previous year.

The Group’s profit for the financial year stood at EUR 34.2 million (EUR 27.2 million). The Board of Directors of Savon Voima proposes to the annual general meeting that a dividend of EUR 9.5 (9.5) million be paid to the owner municipalities.

– The Group’s sizeable investment programme requires financial preparedness and stable productivity in the years 2019 - 2021 so that the security of supply we have aimed for can be achieved. Fortunately, the Group’s bioenergy programme is at the maintenance stage and the efficiency-improvement programme is achieving good results, because the investments in the resilient network are substantial at the Group level. A productive year enables a reasonable yield to the owner municipalities, says Arto Sutinen, CEO of the Savon Voima Group.